Articles for Parents

Twelve Benefits of Music Education

1. Early musical training helps develop brain areas involved in language and reasoning. It is thought that brain development continues for many years after birth. Recent studies have clearly indicated that musical training physically develops the part of the left side of the brain known to be involved with processing language, and can actually wire the brain’s circuits in specific ways. Linking familiar songs to new information can also help imprint information on young minds.

2. There is also a causal link between music and spatial intelligence (the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things). This kind of intelligence, by which one can visualize various elements that should go together, is critical to the sort of thinking necessary for everything from solving advanced mathematics problems to being able to pack a book-bag with everything that will be needed for the day.

3. Students of the arts learn to think creatively and to solve problems by imagining various solutions, rejecting outdated rules and assumptions. Questions about the arts do not have only one right answer.

4. Recent studies show that students who study the arts are more successful on standardized tests such as the SAT. They also achieve higher grades in high school.

5. A study of the arts provides children with an internal glimpse of other cultures and teaches them to be empathetic towards the people of these cultures. This development of compassion and empathy, as opposed to development of greed and a “me first” attitude, provides a bridge across cultural chasms that leads to respect of other races at an early age.

6. Students of music learn craftsmanship as they study how details are put together painstakingly and what constitutes good, as opposed to mediocre, work. These standards, when applied to a student’s own work, demand a new level of excellence and require students to stretch their inner resources.

7. In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not, the entrance is made or not. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Through music study, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work.

8. Music study enhances teamwork skills and discipline. In order for an orchestra to sound good, all players must work together harmoniously towards a single goal, the performance, and must commit to learning music, attending rehearsals, and practicing.

9. Music provides children with a means of self-expression. Now that there is relative security in the basics of existence, the challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Everyone needs to be in touch at some time in his life with his core, with what he is and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expression.

10. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on “doing,” as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world. Employers are looking for multi-dimensional workers with the sort of flexible and supple intellects that music education helps to create as described above. In the music classroom, students can also learn to better communicate and cooperate with one another.

11. Music performance teaches young people to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it early and often makes it less of a problem later. Risk-taking is essential if a child is to fully develop his or her potential.

12. An arts education exposes children to the incomparable.

Carolyn Phillips is the author of the Twelve Benefits of Music Education. She is the Former Executive Director of the Norwalk Youth Symphony, CT.

Attribution
Patricial Shehan Campbell, Claire Connell, and Amy Beegle (2007), “Adolescents’ Expressed Meanings of Music in and out of School,” Journal of Research in Music Education, 55(3), p. 229.

Life Skills Learned in Music

Attribution

Patricial Shehan Campbell, Claire Connell, and Amy Beegle (2007), “Adolescents’ Expressed Meanings of Music in and out of School,” Journal of Research in Music Education, 55(3), p. 229.

Item Text

In discussing life benefits of music study, the authors report, “The most heavily reported life preparation skill was self-discipline, with respondents acknowledging that the hard work and dedication that are integral to participation in school music groups teach the valuable lesson that if ‘you stick with something and practice,’ the rewards will be bountiful. Other students conceded that the concentration required for learning music and the process of memorizing music pieces had honed those skills in other areas of their schoolwork.

“Music was frequently described as a force for building one’s character, and many students expressed their belief that music was capable of directing them in shaping their broader sense of self, who they were becoming, and how they might succeed in the world. The respondents highlighted confidence, responsibility, compassion, pride, patience, and respect as aspects of their character they feel they owe, at least in part, to music.”

Links

http://www.menc.org/resources/view/menc-journals

In discussing life benefits of music study, the authors report, “The most heavily reported life preparation skill was self-discipline, with respondents acknowledging that the hard work and dedication that are integral to participation in school music groups teach the valuable lesson that if ‘you stick with something and practice,’ the rewards will be bountiful. Other students conceded that the concentration required for learning music and the process of memorizing music pieces had honed those skills in other areas of their schoolwork.

“Music was frequently described as a force for building one’s character, and many students expressed their belief that music was capable of directing them in shaping their broader sense of self, who they were becoming, and how they might succeed in the world. The respondents highlighted confidence, responsibility, compassion, pride, patience, and respect as aspects of their character they feel they owe, at least in part, to music.”

The excitement of a new adventure is enough to provide an ample supply of positive motivation for the first several weeks of the instrumental music experience. Once the initial enthusiasm wears off, it is important to immediately develop wholesome practice habits which will guarantee a successful and personally gratifying process for your child. Your support and guidance will be the key…Click here to continue reading.

AN ENRICHED LIFE FOR YOUR CHILD THROUGH MUSIC
Just listening to music is fun, and yet it’s even more fun to create.
There is a simple joy in experimenting with an instrument, in playing real notes and melodies, and in performing as part of band or orchestra. And, your child will know the pleasure and satisfaction of meeting and handling each new venture.

MIND AND MUSIC
New Studies Suggest Music Enhances Mental Power
Mozart’s music can raise your IQ… at least temporarily, according to research published in the British science journal Nature. Thirty six college students listened to 10 minutes of Mozart’s Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos, 10 minutes of a relaxation tape and 10 minutes of silence. They took different tests of abstract reasoning after each listening, and the average…Click here to continue reading.

Let’s Face It. There are more important things to teach kids in school these days than music, right? Let’s just teach them the basics… Math, Science, Reading. They can get their music from CD’s and MTV. Did those opening sentences alarm you? Well, that’s the mindset of many these days with school budgets being slashed and all of us feeling the pinch of lean economic times. Do children really NEED…Click here to continue reading.

Why should music be included as a basic part of the curriculum?
Music is worth knowing.
Music is one of the most important manifestations of our cultural heritage. Children need to know about Newton and Einstein.
Music is a potential in every individual that, like all potential, should be developed to its fullest.
Music provides an outlet for creativity, self-expression, and individual uniqueness. It enables us to express our noblest thoughts and…Click here to continue reading.

Music is a science
It is exact, specific: and it demands exact acoustics. A conductor’s full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody and harmony all at once with the most exact control of time.

Music is mathematical
It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.